Maintaining Special Characters throughout the workflow is hard and Output differs

[Subha_Rajamani]

Experts help!

If you notice there is a minor difference in the dash sign used in the input. It is getting changed in my Output.

Need help to get data same as input.

Input:

Management - Into the

Management – Out

Output:

Management - Into the

Management - Out

[caltang]

My first look at this question had me confused, but I see that - and – are different characters. 

This is the solution: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Discussions/Text-To-Columns-changed-data-f...

[Subha_Rajamani]

Thanks for the quick look of my problem. I am not doing Text to column using only Select, Formula, Join and Union tools to come up with this output. Can you explain how to find whether my workflow is having "input/out configuration for Gallery" as mentioned in the solution link?

[caltang]

Hi @Subha_Rajamani 

Apologies for the late response, I went to bed. In your case, can you try adding a Formula Tool just before your output and use the Replace syntax to get your special characters?

Otherwise, an alternative route would be to use Find Replace Tool, with you having a separate Excel sheet that contains the list of special characters that you wish to have in the output.

Try it and let me know. If you're still stuck, can you Export your Alteryx workflow here and I can have a look. Others can chip in as well.

Hope it helps!

-Cal

[Sameer_Kanade8810]

Hi You could create a text input with the below data.

Field 1Management— Out

Field 2 Management - Out

And use the apend tool to replace the Management— Out to  Management - Out.

try this out if it helps.

[Subha_Rajamani]

Hi Caltang, Thank you for your solution!
My issue is not related to Replacing the special characters. I want the characters as it is in the Input.

Solution arrived: 

I mistakenly changed the data type before formula tool in my Workflow from V_WString to VString.

Due to that the special characters got changed to "Dash" instead of "Long Dash."

Thanks to Everyone for sharing some insights on this issue!!!

[caltang]

Awesome! Yes, V_WString is what you need. It's tricky sometimes, gets the best of us. Glad you solved it and thanks for letting us know!